The Chicken Fighting Nan - comics by kids (No Trump, no brainrot*)

Three days, two schools, six comics, splendid stuff from Maple Hayes in Lichfield and Malmesbury.

*I mention the Trump and brainrot purely because, while most of my posts are getting 15 to 50 views, the one mentioning Trump comics got 98 views and the combination of Trump and Brainrot got 330. While you're here - buy my books)

Maple Hayes Hall in Lichfield is, I kept reminding myself, a dyslexia specialist school. Having forgotten that detail at a dyslexia specialising school earlier this year, particularly during the choosing of the comic title (done by a knockout process involving titles written on bits of paper by everyone in the class), I avoided that pitfall today. I needn't have worried, their titles were all perfectly legible and understandable. Both of their winning titles involving cyber-bullying of teachers, it would appear.

A return booking to Malmesbury Primary was a treat as it was one of the earliest schools that started having me in regularly when I began my Comic Art Masterclasses many years ago. However the last time I was there appears to have been 2013! I can't find the comics from that last visit (blog posts from those days stored the images in a format that didn't last) but I'm sure these are better.

Another couple of nifty titles, produced with the Year 4s today and the Year 3s yesterday. I do hope they have me back sometime, it was good to be back.

The celebrities these six groups chose, to appear in my demonstration strip, were Donald Trump, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Lucy Bronze, Mr Beast and (old scary) Michael Jackson (I now regularly ask them whether they want young or old MJ, their choice often being made on ethnic grounds, ie BAME kids choose young, majority white kids choose old & creepy).

My Books And Where To Find Them...

Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard  The Third (bw)
Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay  Macbeth	Prince of  Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's  Dream Team
Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain
Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess
Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Book Sales July

Here we see me outside Malmesbury Primary School, with a table of my wares set up ready to sell to parents. To my surprise I did rather well, as you will see below, and was kicking myself that my supplies of books were low, through mostly no fault of my own (Lulu were later than usual with one batch.)

Live events / classes et al   = x books, x comics £x 

(June 111 books + 17 comics, £1313; May 72, £862.90; April 185, £2111.54; March 181, £2153.41)

D2D -  x books ($x)    

(June = 4, $5.42; May = 7, $8.09; April = 12, $13.54; March = 54, $74.79)

Etsy -  x books (£x)      

(June = 1, £7.99; May 6, £50.95; April 2, £8.98; March 4, £32.96)

Lulu - x books (£x)    (May 6, £12, April 6, £6.91, March 7, £6.11)

Blurb - x book, $x     (June = 1, $1.68; May 0, April 0, March 1, 61p)

Podcast downloads - x    (June 259, May 278, April 164, March 96)

Blog views  - x    (June 497,446; May 365,397, April 340,000, March 300,000)

Youtube views  - x    (June 2070, subs 4973)

Live Sales July 2026 = x books + x comics (£x)

July 1 - Maple Hayes - 6 books, 1 comic (£51)

1 x FM

1 x PODS

4 x MNDT

1 x Shakes comic

July 2 - Malmesbury - 13 books, 1 comic (£137)

5 x Romeo col (sold out)

2 x Romeo bw

6 x Richard bw

1 x Shakes comic

July 3 - Malmesbury - 19 books, 6 comics (£158)

4 x Romeo bw (sold out)

2 x Richard bw

5 x FM

4 x PODS

4 x MNDT

6 x Shakes comic

more to come

Live Sales July 2026  (to Malmesbury 2) = 38 books + 8 comics (£346)

A video with 25 thousand views, and other June nonsense

I made a video, that you can see above, that got over 25,000 views. Of course the very next one was down to next to none. It just goes to show you, all you have to do is rant about Doctor Who and they're all over you. What else have I been dribbling on about this month, mostly on Facebook to an audience of none? Let's have a look...

Found in a drawer while having a clear out : the best selling t shirt of Christmas 1993, as designed by me.

This would be my complimentary copy. Which, apart from the fifty quid I got paid for that day’s designs, is all I ever earned from this shirt. Still on sale today, I see it regularly at cons.

****

May 31: Watched Man With Two Brains. Ever watch an old favourite film for the first time in ages, only to find it’s not as good as you remembered? Last night we watched The Man With Two Brains. Oh dear, not good.

We saw it back in 1984, on video cos it never got a cinema release here, and loved its silliness. We still quote its catchphrases in every day conversation, “into the mud scum queen” being in regular use forty years on. (You’ll also find us quoting Pointy Birds, and laughing at the thought of the “azaleas” and “is that her” gags).

But seeing the whole film for the first time in, I guess, twenty years, was sobering and disappointing. From the start the sexism, objectifying, and “blokey” tone was jarring. The sort of gags that seemed really original, because of their silliness (“get that cat out of here!”) now just seemed like the sort of random stuff an inexperienced writer might throw in for lack of better material.

Steve Martin’s clowning, which was novel and endearing at the time, now just reads like mugging. When we first saw it, we’d only just discovered Steve Martin, and had heard his legendary live album for the first time. (We use the phrase “get a photo of me with it anyway” at pretty well every attraction we visit). At the same time we’d loved Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (the movie we were looking for last night but couldn’t find) and All Of Me, so The Man With Two Brains was part of Steve Martin being on a roll.

But it rolls to a halt and comes across as a dated, disjointed mess. I like the surrealism, eg the tiny apartment that opens into a castle interior, but it’s the sort of novelty that was refreshing at the time and now just feels like something you’ve seen done better.

I never thought I’d be longing for Steve Martin’s later serious acting, but TMWTB has made it happen.

Ironically I sprang to the defence of this movie just a few weeks ago here on FB, bringing my nostalgia to the party. I’ll find it a harder film to stand up for now.

***

June 1: Started watching Tip Toe. Enjoyed Tip Toe last night on Channel 4, but I feel a bit like I’m living that “Dr Manhattan on the moon” meme.

It’s 2026 and in Tip Toe Russell T Davies is asking “what’s it like to be a 60 year old gay man on Canal Street?”

It’s 2015 and in Cucumber Russell T Davies is asking “what’s it like to be a 50 year old gay man on Canal Street?”

It’s 1999 and in Queer As Folk Russell T Davies is asking “what’s it like to be a 35 year old gay man on Canal Street?”

He did buck the trend with It’s A Sin, cos it was 2021 and he was asking “what was it like to be a gay man on Canal Street in 1984?”

Someone has to do it, and no one does it better than RTD. It’s an artist revisiting the same painting again and again, and I champion it. He’s earned it.

****

more to come...

More Trump & brainrot - comics by kids

A short run of schools this week, the hottest week of the year, and indeed of the century, and possibly of all time, so far. From Northampton to Norfolk to Coventry to, er, that was it.

Northampton High School Juniors is an independent girls school, with all that entails. That meant they were more intelligent and confident than most Year 6s, and they bought books. And came up with one part brainrot (the dog thing) and one part Donald Trump (who's disproportionately popular this term).

Flitcham Primary in Norfolk is near Kings Lynn and is in fact on the Sandringham Estate, which means King Charles opened their library. They also bought books, more than I thought they were going to in fact, and got one for free cos the kids were about to perform a Book Of Esther play, so I gave them a copy as a gift. Their suggestions were one part brainrot, admittedly mis-spelled so they end up with a cuckoo which isn't part of the original cucaracha thing they watch on Tiktok or Youtube (this being the week the supposed ban on social media for under 16s was announced, it'll be interesting to see if this sort of thing remains part of their world for long).

Finham Park was a return visit, though I'd not been there for nine years. Because of the high temperatures this week, Coventry being pretty well in the epicentre of the heatwave, they were cutting down to a half day. But luckily I was able to squeeze two classes worth of kids into one group, and still got paid the full day rate. Not bad.

The celebrities these five groups chose to appear in their demonstration strip were Michael Jackson (three times - once they chose young Michael Jackson with his proper nose, lips and hair, and twice they chose old evil Michael Jackson), Cristiano Ronaldo, and Phoebe from Friends.

My Books And Where To Find Them...

Romeo & Juliet (Colour)	Romeo & Juliet (bw)	Richard The Third (Colour)	Richard  The Third (bw)
Shakespeare Omnibus	Findlay  Macbeth	Prince of  Denmark Street	Midsummer Night's  Dream Team
Tales From Bible (Col)	Tales From Bible (bw)	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories	Space Elain
Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Doctors Who? Colouring	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess
Kids Comics Annual 2026	Kids Comics Annual 2025	Socks Do Shakespeare	Colouring Books

Colouring Books: Doctors Who, Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Royalty, Rom Coms